Best way of creating a fallback server

[pixellip]

Hi there

Our mac mini has been playing up a bit running server ( and workgroup manager ).

I thought this morning it might be wise to have a backup server running on another.

Can anyone suggest an easy way of just creating a kind of backup OD server and taking a copy of workgroup manager over to the new server?

Thank you.

Mike

[3s-gtech]

Is it hosting OD or just an AD domain integrated directory? Makes a big difference to how much it's actually doing. I had problems with my Mac server some years back, and as it just hosted settings via WGM and integration to AD I cleared all of the settings and started again, took about two hours.

 

As far as I know, it's not easy to run a replica. You can do it using ESXi running on Apple hardware, with your server as VM on there. Or, just make sure you have backups and be ready to rebuild it if it pops.

 

Oh, and look at retiring WGM and moving to PM. I thought we were stragglers when we moved four years back, but WGM is VERY OLD now!

[pixellip]

It's hosting OD and we use AD for password login. Yes I know about WGM.......it's getting on now. Thing is it's simple.........but it does need to go.

When you say as your server as VM on there - what do you mean by that? A virtual machine that runs on a server?

 

Thanks that is useful advice you've just given.

Mike

[3s-gtech]

You can run OS X on a virtual machine, so long as the host (physical server) meets Apple's licensing requirements (generally that means 'it's a Mac'). That way, you can leverage the benefits of virtualisation like snapshots, easy migration etc. This is what I'd do if I had the hardware to do so (like a spare Mac Pro or similar).